C4 Corner Cutter

With my recent return to playing hex and counter wargames, I have purchased a few used games through eBay. That has reminded me repeatedly about something that drives me a little crazy. I hate fuzzy counters! The dies that were used to cut counter sheets back in the day left tabs on the edges and corners of the counters when you cut them apart. Even worse, you would have a large, fuzzy tab if you just pushed the counters out of the sheet.

I have always been a little obsessive when it comes to trimming my counters, cutting the extra tabs off if I could and clipping the corners to eliminate the fuzzies. I use a razor knife to cut the counters from the sheet, trimming off tabs as I go, and a pair of nail clippers to clip the corners. For a mini game with fifty or so counters, this is fairly simple. For some of the larger games with multiple sheets of counters, it can take quite a bit of time. Nothing will replace the razor knife for cutting the counters from the sheet, but I found a nifty device that makes trimming the corners much easier.

The C4 Counter Culture Corner Cutter is a device designed to make trimming the corners on counters easier. It consists of two plexiglass pieces attached to a plexiglass base, with a small gap at the corner. The outside edges are beveled at a 45 degree angle. It includes a plastic corner piece and a small wood block for pressing the counters into the jig. You need to use a heavy-duty x-acto or similar razor knife with a #18 chisel blade to cut the corners.

To use it, you stack your counters in the corner of the jig, snug them in place with the plastic corner and the wood block and then slice the corners off the stack. It takes a little practice to get used to the exact angle to hold the blade, and mine has a few nicks and scratches on the bevels from some of my early cuts. Once you get the hang of it, though, it does an excellent job of cutting the corners and the attached fuzzies from the counters. You can cut as many as ten counters at a time. I was able to work through several hundred counters in just under an hour, including cutting them from the original sheet.

The only drawback I have found to the device is the difficulty in cutting older tokens. Some of the dies used by Avalon Hill and SPI back in the day didn't produce uniform tokens, so you may need to run some of the counters through a second time to clip all the corners evenly. Even with this reservation, it is still a huge time saver.

Some reviewers have complained a bit about the price, suggesting that $19.95 is too expensive for a few pieces of plexiglass and a couple of bits. I completely disagree. The device is sturdily constructed and well worth the price, easily paying for itself in the amount of time it saves.

If you play wargames and clip the corners on your counters, I heartily recommend you get one of these. You can order them on eBay or directly from Dave King here.